I've got an awesome brief, but incredibly sweet and challenging interval session for you. An interval is pairing a period of hight intensity work with a period of recovery. In this tennis fitness interval workout you will be doing 8 intervals.
Again, the idea here is to turn up the intensity, go full bore, kind of like you are grinding it out during an incredibly long point on clay courts, and then to recover...let you heart rate come back down before you play another point so to speak. We are using a 1 to 2 work/rest ratio to mimic the typical work/rest ratio scene in matches.
This session can be done running (outside or treadmill), on a stationary bike, jumping rope, or on any modality you choose. The trick is that you will be alternating between one minute of brisk walking (referred to as 50%) and 30 second periods of sprinting ( referred to as 100% or highest intensity you can give without hurting yourself). Remember the period where you are really stepping on the gas only lasts you 30 seconds...you can do it!
You'll see in the prescription that the first 2 periods used for the sprint are less than 100% so as to let you wake up the muscles of the hip flexor an quadriceps before you go for it.
If you choose equipment such as a treadmill, or bike, the key is to get you legs going as fast as possible (frequency or high number of footstrikes/revolutions) rather than applying more resistance through raising the incline...go flat out fast!
Here's what it looks like:
2 min = 50% Warm-Up
30 sec = 80%
1 min = 50%
30 sec = 90%
1 min = 50%
30 sec = 100%
1 min = 50%
30 sec = 100%
1 min = 50%
30 sec = 100%
1 min = 50%
30 sec = 100%
1 min = 50%
30 sec = 100%
1 min = 50%
30 sec = 100%
1 min = 50%
Finito!
Let me know how it goes...Adam Brewer
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